Raining Sparks

This time I'm mistaken

For handing you a heart worth breaking

And I've been wrong

I've been down

Into the bottom of every bottle

These five words in my head scream

Are we having fun yet?

[How You Remind Me: Nickelback]

In the shadows past the bridge, Daisuke could see Marin, and the glint of a blade held across her throat.

"Stay… stay where you are," the assailant told him fiercely, and Daisuke could see the faint light trembling on the sword blade held near Marin's throat. "If you want your priestess unharmed, you'll stay right where you are."

Daisuke stilled, his eyes on Marin.

"Sure," he said soothingly. He had heard the note of uncertainty under the words of command, and held onto the grim thought that if the swordsman had truly intended to harm Marin it would already be done. Marin would be safe as long as they kept talking and no one panicked. "Nobody's going anywhere, but you might want to put that sword away."

"Try anything, and she's the one who'll suffer."

"Not me."

Daisuke's gaze shifted down, and that was when the assailant became aware of the little knife blade millimetres from his gut. Marin's face was like stone, but the blade shook dangerously in her unsteady hand. It wouldn't take much for a nasty slip. In the moment of distraction, Daisuke stepped forward quickly and gently plucked the sword from their attacker's unpractised grip.

"You haven't had much experience with this, have you?" he asked casually.

Now that he had the chance to look closely, Daisuke could see that the young man had the look of a scholar rather than a warrior. There was a certain softness around the edges of his long, lean frame, and he blinked myopically, a look of despair sweeping over his face as he stared down at the tiny knife. He seemed to almost collapse in on himself.

"Please," the young man said desperately. "Please, you have to listen to me."

"You didn't exactly get things off to a good start here," Daisuke pointed out. "If you want us to listen, you probably shouldn't have pulled a sword."

"I saw you when we reached the town earlier," Marin said in a voice of flint. "You're the one who's been following us since we found Seiryuu's temple, aren't you? You burned down the farm."

"I had to try and stop you, before it's too late," the young man pleaded. "I didn't know what else to do."

"Too late for what?" Daisuke asked him.

"My name is Huo Huan. I serve-" he stopped, his voice cracking. "I served the Priestess of Seiryuu, until the day that she summoned the Azure Dragon and He destroyed everything. It destroyed her."

Daisuke saw the knife in Marin's hand drop to her side.

"That is why you must listen to me, before you bring the same fate that befell Qudong down on the rest of the world."

"Who was she?" Marin asked quietly, and Huo Huan looked up, meeting her eyes for the first time. The despair in his face deepened.

"Natsumi Toyoda," he told her. "The priestess I served was Natsumi Toyoda, and I failed her."

Daisuke opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped, arrested by the way the colour was draining out of Marin's face, leaving it frozen and pale.

"Natsumi," she said, and her voice sounded odd. "Pretty girl, about sixteen, straight black hair that she always wears in a braid over her left shoulder with a sparkly hairclip, heart-shaped birthmark on her neck?"

Huo Huan gave a faint nod, his eyes fixed on Marin now.

"She didn't make it to the student council meeting yesterday," Marin continued, her voice still sounding strange and distant. "I thought… we all thought… she'd skipped out to meet a boyfriend."

"You knew her," Huo Huan breathed, and Marin gave a stiff, mechanical little nod.

"We go… we went… to the same school. We're on student council together, but she was a few years younger. I always liked her."

"She was so sweet to me, and I would have done anything for her," Huo Huan said, his voice wobbling a little. "I was going to be an administrator, I'd just passed the exams when Natsumi arrived, and then I found out that I was one of her Seishi. I could bring words to life with a few strokes of my brush, but all my power is gone now, and I was never worthy of it. Of her trust."

"What happened?" Daisuke asked gently, when it became obvious that Marin couldn't speak. "Can you tell us?"

"We performed the ritual at the Temple of Seiryuu in the Bamboo Forest, just like we were supposed to, but when He came, He… devoured her." Huo Huan sounded like he was trying to not throw up, and Marin made a faint retching sound. "It was worse than that. It was… and then the beast god turned on the rest of us, but I… ran."

He was shaking so hard that Daisuke put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"I'm ashamed to say that I ran, and I was the only one to survive. I made my way back to Chunfeng, because I didn't know where else to go, but when I got there… Oh gods, the city was gone. There had been storms for days, and then Seiryuu appeared in the sky over the city with the tengu…"

"The tengu?" Marin asked sharply, and Huo Huan nodded.

"Hordes of oni, too, as far as you can see across the plains around Chunfeng. And then Seiryuu destroyed the city. Wiped it clean, and there were only a handful of people who managed to escape. I found a few of them hiding in the forest a couple of miles to the west of the city."

"How have we not heard about this?" Marin asked, her voice cracking with horror.

"Who is left to bear the news?" Huo Huan responded dully. "Every country is dealing with trouble and strife, and there aren't many traders on the roads willing to risk their lives, not with the demons everywhere and the gods turned against us. I've been hiding in the forest around the Temple, and when you turned up I knew I had to try to stop you from summoning Suzaku and bringing another god's wrath down on our world."

"So you tried to shoot us at the temple, and turned the villages in Qudong against us, and burned down that farmhouse with us in it," Daisuke said, and the young man's face collapsed even further.

"I failed at that, too. I couldn't even do that for Natsumi, and I failed," he whimpered.

"I'm rather glad you did," Daisuke said drily.

There was a sudden shout behind them. Daisuke and Marin turned to face the guards bearing down on them. Huo Huan took a couple of steps backwards on the bridge, and an arrow hissed out of the air to land at his feet.

Before Daisuke could stop her, Marin had pivoted to put herself between Huo Huan and the guards, because of course she would.

"Go!" she told him. "There's nothing more you can do here, unless you still want to kill me. I'll fix this."

Another arrow whistled towards them, and as Daisuke yanked Marin out of its path the Seiryuu Seishi broke and ran.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Marin shouted angrily at the guards. "You could have hit him!"

"Or us," Daisuke muttered. Four guards closed around them, and the stone-faced captain gave Marin a perfunctory bow.

"Orders, your eminence." He swept out an arm towards the direction she was expected to take, and Daisuke noted that the soldiers closest to him had their hands firmly on the hilts of their swords. His teeth bared in a sharp grin.

"We're here to escort you safely back to Zhao Manor, my lady," the captain told her implacably, once again motioning towards the road back to the estate. There was no further protest, and Daisuke followed Marin's lead, keeping his eyes on her as they were shepherded. She was growing more and more unsteady on her feet as the buzz of the alcohol wore off and the shock of the Seiryuu Seishi's news kicked in. Her face was as pale as snow in the dim moonlight.

As they climbed the hill, the manor house in front of them boiled with light and chaos. Purposeful lanterns bobbed to and fro, and a shout went up from the gate as they approached. Zifeng swept down the steps of the central building as Marin and Daisuke were marched across the wide paved courtyard. Marin was wilting fast, but Zifeng ignored them both for a swift conference with the captain. The captain barked an order to his men, who fell in behind him, and he executed a bow to Zifeng before he wheeled around and jogged back in the direction of the village with mail and swords clanking ominously. Daisuke could only hope that Huo Huan was better at concealment and evasion than he was at weaponry and assassination.

Zifeng's head snapped around at the sound of another arrival, and Daisuke followed the line of his sight. Master Zhao stood at the head of the stairs. With slow, deliberate tread he descended.

"I see you have located your errant Priestess," he said, turning to his heir, and even Daisuke could hear the unsteady breath before Zifeng answered his father.

"An insurgent tried to attack the Priestess in the village."

Master Zhao's impassive gaze flicked over the crowd of Seishi and guards in the courtyard, and the servants who hovered uncertainly on the edges.

"I fail to see any insurgents here," he observed coldly. "Could it be that you have allowed them to run loose in our demesne?"

"He escaped in the confusion. Our men are searching for him now, but the captain was under my orders to secure the Priestess' person, and I take responsibility for the decision that returning her to safety was paramount over pursuing the miscreant," Zifeng said, his voice carefully calm.

They all startled at the sudden crack as Master Zhao backhanded his son. Zifeng rocked on his feet, and Daisuke stared as the marquis carefully shook the folds of his sleeve into place again.

"Excuses," Master Zhao said with icy precision.

There was an awful silence, then Zifeng bowed lower, and his father turned and swept out.

…

Everyone in the courtyard was motionless in the glacial silence Master Zhao left behind, and the absence of sound was like a pressure in Marin's head. In the middle of the frozen tableau, Zifeng stood unmoving with a look of doom laid bare in his eyes, until the first slight, nervous shifting of someone's foot broke the spell and he turned away.

The sudden return of noise buzzed in Marin's ears, pounding through her skull and churning her stomach, and she clutched her hands to her head to try and block it out. Then, with an ominous twist, her stomach rebelled and she bolted into the gardens. She made it as far as a hedge, mercifully out of sight of the courtyard and the milling crowd there, before heaving her guts up.

The remnants of the alcohol burned a path in her throat, and Marin found herself sobbing and retching. Someone held her hair back, a soothing voice repeating meaningless words. When Marin finally collapsed, trembling, with tears still rolling down her face, Xuelian smoothed the damp wisps of hair back from her face.

Marin was regretting everything that had happened that night, leading to this moment. She had allowed herself to get caught up in the heat of the alcohol and excitement and freedom, but the magic of that moment on the bridge was tarnished now by the acid taste in her mouth and the look in Zifeng's eyes. The crack of his father's hand on Zifeng's jaw still echoed in her ears.

An unexpected wave of homesickness swamped her. Kimiko never seemed to have any trouble negotiating the complications of her love-life, and in that moment Marin wished she had some of her sister's light-hearted insouciance.

"What am I going to do?" she whispered, and Xuelian handed her a corked flask of something to wash the taste out of her mouth.

"You need to fix things with Zifeng," Xuelian told her with a soft ferocity. "He doesn't deserve this."

The doctor stood, turning to the garden path where Zifeng was watching them silently, and Marin staggered to her feet. The humiliation of the evening was complete as she walked towards Zifeng with the taste of bile in her mouth and everything about her a tangled, grubby mess. She reached up in a futile effort to push her hair into some semblance of order.

"Why did you leave the manor without telling me?"

The words were almost inaudible, but Marin could hear the bewilderment and hurt under the brittle veneer of cold anger.

"It was a mistake. I made a mistake."

She could see his fingers curl into a fist at his side, but he bent his head in a mechanical nod of acknowledgement.

"For the sake of our bond, and the duty we owe Suzaku, I will forget this indiscretion. We won't speak of this again," he said stiffly. She followed as he turned and swept back towards the courtyard.

"Xuelian," he turned his head, barely glancing at the young woman on his other side. "I need you to return Marin to her quarters. I will send my men to guard the doors, but I ask you to stay with her until I get back."

"Where are you going?" Marin asked. He spared her a slicing glance.

"To sweep the village and find the cur who attacked you. Tian Zhen and Zhu Yi are still down in the village, looking for you."

"And you're just going to lock me up here?" she said incredulously. "This is ridiculous."

Zifeng stopped abruptly and whirled on her, with the crowd in the courtyard looking on in shock.

"How can I trust you if I don't?" he almost shouted. "How can I keep you safe?"

"There's nothing to keep me safe from!" Marin protested.

"Someone pulled a sword on you!"

"That guy wasn't a danger to anyone except himself. He could barely hold a sword," Daisuke said, and Marin stepped up quickly before Zifeng could turn on him.

"I wasn't in any real danger," she said placatingly, ignoring Daisuke's huff of exasperation. "Huo Huan was never going to hurt me."

"He tried to burn that farmhouse down with us in it," Xuelian pointed out quietly.

"He's just scared and desperate, but he couldn't hurt me in person. He's one of Seiryuu's Seishi and he was there when Seiryuu was summoned. He's lost his priestess, Qudong is in ruins and the city is destroyed, and I think we need to listen to him before we go rushing off to Mt Daichi –"

"You actually believe the guy who followed us all the way through Qudong and tried to kill us several times?" Zhang Yong protested angrily. "Just because he claims to be a Seishi? You'd trust him over the command of the Emperor of Heaven? Tai Yi Jun told us to come to Mt Daichi! You keep saying you're going to fix things and summon Suzaku, and you keep finding reasons not to!"

Marin stiffened.

"And what if the same thing happens when I try to summon Suzaku again? What if the same thing happens to Hongnan?" she snapped back. "We don't know nearly enough about what's going on here."

"And while you're waiting to find out, wasting time with flirting and fireworks, people are dying," Zhang Yong snarled.

"Do you think I don't know that?" Marin could hear her voice rising. "One of those people was Seiryuu's priestess. I knew her, I went to school with her!"

"Enough!" Zifeng cut in savagely. "We are not abandoning our purpose on the word of a would-be assassin who claims to be one of Seiryuu's Seishi."

"He didn't harm me," Marin insisted, and Zifeng cut her off with a sharp gesture.

"I don't care!" There was real fear under his anger. "Someone pulled a blade on you in my lands. That someone could do that means that I have failed you."

"You haven't failed me," Marin protested, trying to find the right words. "I shouldn't have left and gone into the village without telling you."

"No. You should not, but I know well who lured you there," Zifeng said in a voice that was almost as cold as his father's, and Marin's head shot up.

"Lured me?" she said sharply.

Without responding, Zifeng caught her upper arm as if to forcibly manhandle her towards the women's quarters and safekeeping. He stopped short, just before he walked onto the point of Daisuke's dagger aimed at his gut.

"I'd let go of Marin, if I were you," Daisuke said brightly, and his hazel eyes were alight with something that looked like fury.

"Stay out of this," Zifeng snarled. "You've caused more than enough trouble."

"I'm going to cause more than trouble if you don't let go of Marin right now."

"Daisuke –" Marin tried.

Zifeng's mouth twisted. "Do you really think you can best me in a fight? I will not allow you to come between us."

"Very romantic," Daisuke said drily. His dagger was still in his hand. "But I'm not the one who's trying to hold on to her by force. Has it occurred to you to ask Marin what she wants?"

"Do you think that will be you?" Zifeng sneered.

"Probably not, if she's got any sense, but I think that she's the only one who gets to decide that."

There was a beat or two, and Marin fought down the urge to pick up the nearest rock and brain the both of them. She was starting to feel like a sideline in her own life, and her headache was returning with a vengeance.

Then Daisuke gave Zifeng a feral smirk.

"And I'm the one she kissed," he said provocatively.

Zifeng's sword was free of its sheath before Marin could cry out, his forehead blazing with Tamahome's bright red rage. As he lunged towards Daisuke, Marin saw Xuelian reach out and touch Zifeng's shoulder. His eyes rolled back, and he crumpled where he stood.

Xuelian stared down at the man sprawled at her feet.

"He's never going to forgive me for this," she said forlornly.

Marin spun around to glare at Daisuke. "You just couldn't resist, could you?"

He sheathed his daggers and lifted his hands. "Just trying to help, sugar."

"Don't ever help me again," she snapped at him. "That wasn't helping, that was provoking a fight you've been itching for since he beat you on the ship. Do you think I'm not capable of looking out for myself?"

"You don't seem to be doing such a good job of it so far." Daisuke seemed to be getting angry himself, and his eyes flashed fire. "You know you're not happy about Zifeng's decisions, but you're not saying a damned thing, and now he wants to send you off to your room and lock you up like a naughty child? Are you seriously saying you're okay with that?"

"I'm saying these are my battles to choose or walk away from, and you don't get to fight them for me."

She backed away before she could punch him in that annoying face of his, and pressed her hands to her throbbing temples. Xuelian was still bent over Zifeng, her face stricken as two servants knelt beside her to lift their young master and carry him back to his rooms. That was another problem that Marin just couldn't deal with in that moment.

"I'm going to bed," Marin said, and walked away unsteadily with as much dignity as she could still muster.

…

Zifeng became aware of his surroundings gradually. There was a strange sense of disconnection; one moment he had been drawing his sword in a red-hot inferno of fury, and the next he was trying to focus on the familiar pattern of the hangings over his bed. When he tried to move aside the quilt that had been drawn up to his chest his hand responded too slowly, shaking as he lifted it. He dropped it again.

Someone shifted in the shadows just beyond the bed and Zifeng sat up too quickly, his head swimming. Zhang Yong moved forward to steady him. The young monk's staff was leaning against the wall near the door, and it looked like he'd been waiting there for a while.

"Are you alright?" the boy asked. "Can I get you anything?"

Zifeng frowned, and said urgently, "Where is Marin?"

"Asleep in her rooms. Meixing is with her now, and we've been keeping watch all night. Tian Zhen and Zhu Yi are back – there's been no sign of the Seiryuu Seishi."

"And the otherworld bastard?" Zifeng felt his voice go flat.

"Also under watch. We have to do something about him," Zhang Yong said, his voice low and insistent as he took an eager step closer. "He's dangerous. He killed a god, and how in hell did he walk away from that explosion in Xilang without a scratch when the rest of us got hit? We don't even know where he really comes from. We don't know why he's here, and now he's influencing the Priestess, taking her away from us. Tai Yi Jun promised me that Marin could wish everything back, if we can just summon Suzaku," he said desperately. "Everyone the tengu destroyed, and all the damage that's been done in Hongnan could be undone."

Zhang Yong's hand clenched on his staff.

"I could have my family back, if that bastard doesn't talk her out of summoning Suzaku. It's obvious that he's a threat, and if Marin can't see it-"

"She just won't listen," Zifeng cried, his voice cracking.

"Then we have to do something. Accidents happen," Zhang Yong said savagely, and Zifeng met that fierce gaze, trying to take in the implications of what the boy was saying. A part of him was horrified at what Zhang Yong seemed to be suggesting. Another part of him, with a movement as imperceptible as the first stone in a rockslide, inclined his head ever so slightly.

Zhang Yong bowed, and left.

…

When Marin woke up, her head was pounding in rhythm with her thunderous heartbeat and her mouth tasted vile. She was grateful for the shutters that blocked out all but a faint rim of daylight, and in the shadows of her room she pressed her fingertips to her thumping temples. At least she no longer felt so nauseous.

She sat up slowly and carefully, and the deeper shadow of the doorway shifted. Dim light caught the red glint of Daisuke's hair as he came towards her bed, a cup of something in his hand.

"How are you doing?" he asked softly, and she grimaced.

"Trying to stop my head from falling off."

"At least you threw up most of it last night. You'd be feeling a lot worse this morning if you hadn't."

"Don't remind me," she groaned. "What are you doing here?"

"Xuelian asked Jing Yun to bring you this." He raised the steaming cup. "I talked him into letting me do it instead. He helped me get past your watchdog."

He jerked his head to indicate the courtyard outside where Zhang Yong was pacing fiercely. Daisuke came closer and handed her the cup.

"You might want to drink this."

"What is it?" she asked. She sniffed the steam rising from it suspiciously, and he shrugged. She could see the flash of his grin in the gloom.

"Didn't ask. Xuelian threw a few things in there, so it's probably kill or cure."

With a sigh, Marin sipped cautiously at the steaming liquid and pulled a face.

"Right now, I'm hoping it's kill," she said wearily, and drank off the rest of the cup before she could think better of it. Daisuke took the cup from her, but didn't leave.

"Last night -"

"Was a mistake," she cut him off, not daring to look up at him. "It was a mistake to leave the manor. I shouldn't have had that drink, I shouldn't have gone into the town, and I definitely shouldn't have kissed you like that. I'm sorry."

"Then why did you?" he asked, sharp with frustration.

"I-" she broke off, then started again, trying to make her voice sound certain and strong. "Zifeng and I belong together."

"Then what the hell was all that on the bridge? And don't tell me it was just because you were drunk."

"Do you really think this is the time to be talking about this?" she cried, pressing her hands to her head as it pounded. "Right now, I just want everyone to go away and leave me to suffer in peace!"

There was another presence in the room.

Zifeng stood there in the doorway, watching them both, an icy distance wrapped around him like a cloak. He said nothing for a long moment, his aloof gaze fixed on Daisuke, who met him with something that was less of a grin and more a savage baring of his teeth.

Marin swung her feet over the side of the bed, wincing as the incautious movement hammered at her skull, and slowly stood up. She was very aware of the dishevelled appearance she was presenting in that moment.

Zifeng's gaze swept over her as if she was hardly worth noticing.

"We leave for Mt Daichi tomorrow morning," he informed her. "Assuming you are well enough for the journey."

Marin sucked in a breath, wrapping her arms around herself and fought to meet his eyes. She gave a small nod of acknowledgement. Zifeng turned and left, and Marin shivered slightly. She looked away to find Daisuke's hazel eyes fixed on her with a dark, dangerous fury in them that she'd never seen before.

Before Marin could say anything, Daisuke stepped backwards towards the door, his free hand lifted in surrender.

"Whatever the Priestess chooses," he said bleakly, and walked away.